Has Maui reached its tourism limit?

VIEWPOINT

DICK MAYER

When the plantations mechanized in the 1950s, there were no jobs and Maui’s workers had to leave to find employment elsewhere. Elected officials, government agencies and appointed commissioners facilitated tourist projects by minimally enforcing regulations. They entitled vacant plantation and ranch land for hotels, condominiums, golf courses and shopping centers.

Economic prosperity disguised negative and often unwelcome impacts to the environment, local traditions and culture. Tourists, not Maui residents, selected Maui as the “top tourist-destination island!”

Overtourism results in long commutes, day and night shifts with unattended children, multiple jobs, overcrowded schools, a shortage of doctors, dangerous intersections, wastewater finding its way into the coral reefs, lost views, pesticides draining from golf courses, brown-water advisories, etc.

Tourist industry salaries do not keep up with housing costs; families have to co-habit residences. Second home “McMansions” are built for part-time tourists, while needed affordable units are neglected. Infrastructure for a quality community is not built because tourist facilities do not have to pay needed impact fees.

Unfortunately, as Maui’s quality of life deteriorates, political leaders do not acknowledge or even address the situation. Many politicians are stuck in the past thinking that they must promote a bigger tourist industry. Those days are over. Maui now has a mature tourist industry that needs to protect itself from overtourism. We need political leaders who will assist residents, not corporate investors, and who will enable affordable housing, not more hotels and gated communities.

The Hawai’i Tourism Strategic Plan recognized the change from 50 years ago when it warned, “The relationship between the number of residents and visitors on the island at any given time cannot be overlooked as an important public policy discussion point. Resort communities . . . have grappled with the “golden goose” debate, whereby the tourism experience may be compromised by the very nature of the area’s popularity.”

Fortunately, Maui’s legal tools can promote a tourist industry that will protect jobs, and not disappoint future tourists with a deteriorating visitor experience. Our County Council in 2012 passed the Maui Island Plan (part of the General Plan), a legally binding county ordinance. The plan makes tourist industry regulation an important requirement to preserve and protect Maui’s quality of life.

The Maui Island Plan (Pages 4-14) states: “Maximize residents’ benefits from the visitor industry” and “Promote a desirable island population by striving to not exceed an islandwide visitor population of roughly 33 percent of the resident population.”

That means that if Maui island has 156,000 residents, as we now have, then we should not have more than 52,000 tourists on an average day. However, in July 2018, we had an average of 75,000 tourists each day! Obviously, we already have too many tourist accommodations, most legal, but enough illegal, to reduce housing availability for residents.

The plan (Pages 4-12) states: “Increase the economic contribution of the visitor industry to the island’s environmental well-being and for the island’s residents’ quality of life.”

We must elect leaders in November who will restore and preserve the high quality of life that Maui residents deserve, while carefully protecting our existing tourist industry from overtourism and killing itself.

* Dick Mayer is a retired, 34-year Maui Community College economics and geography professor, former vice-chair of the Maui General Plan Advisory Committee and former member of the Maui Planning Commission. He lives in Kula.